I"m thinking of becoming Orthodox, but Theosis or deification seems strange to me.It makes sense to me if it means, to make of God. Deificare Dei (of God) ficare (make)but it's nonsense of it means its modern meaning: to make someone a God.so I'm taking this as in Spanish Hacer de Diós or to make of God, Deify deificare.My Latin experience is leading me to this definition, that the Orthodox church is not teaching that we can be made gods but that we can be made of God, hecho de Dios factus Dei.

So please someone describe to me what the orthodox Church teaches about Theosis.

My explanation makes sense hereSt. Maximus the Confessor wrote, "A sure warrant for looking forward with hope to deification of human nature is provided by the incarnation of God, which makes man god to the same degree as God himself became man.but if it's its modern meaning how can human nature be Divine, and we as all powerful gods as God himself?

1. Jesus deified me, means: Jesus made me of God by his death (not of the world anymore)2. Jesus deified me, means: he made me a God by his death?3. ¿other?so what is it in reality?

Man was made in the image of God. This image is disfigured by our sin, and Christ restores the proper image of God in us by his death and resurrection. But the image is not only restored, it is completed. Adam and Eve, our primordial ancestors, only knew a fraction of what we will become. Will we lose ourselves and be absorbed into God? No. We will move eternally into God, transfigured by his uncreated light in our glorified bodies. We will be untied with Him, yet separate in out person-hood. We will move from glory to glory, forever.

We will become perpetually more and more like God, but never in ways that violate our fundamental human nature, only in ways that supplement it.

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I"m thinking of becoming Orthodox, but Theosis or deification seems strange to me.

If you spend time in the Sun, your skin darkens and you get a tan. Your Human Nature hasn't changed, it has just adapted to being in the Sun. The more tanned you are, the safer it is to be in the Sun without burning. The same goes for the Divine Energies. We are born with a healthy "tan" which we lose due to our living in the world of sin. Theosis is the gradual tanning process to make sure that when we are fully exposed to the "Sun" (Divine Energies), we don't get a "sunburn". This tanning process continues after death since God is Infinite.

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If you're living a happy life as a Christian, you're doing something wrong.

I think the best way to begin to think of theosis is to think of what it means to be united to Jesus Christ. In baptism we are regenerated by the Spirit and made a son of God in the Son. We are incorporated into his relationship with the Father in the Holy Spirit. We are raised into the life of the Holy Trinity. By adoption and grace, we pray to the Father through the Son in the Holy Spirit. Theosis begins to make sense when one understands that Christian life is lived IN the Holy Trinity. Re-read the Gospel of John and the letters of Paul with this in mind.

in a way he proves Theosis, but the rest of his videos are «anti-christian».So basically Theosis is that we become like Godand that we become partakers of the divine nature?

2Pe 1:4 Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. 1Co 15:49 And as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly. 1Jn 3:2 Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is. (this verse basically says that we become like God no?)

Post scriptumWhat's it called where Man tries to be God himself? apotheos?rather than being a partaker of his divine nature (which would be theosis right?)?

We will become perpetually more and more like God, but never in ways that violate our fundamental human nature, only in ways that supplement it.

Nicely said. Just as a waiter at a fine restaurant can with his black pants and white apron reach over and hand you a menu and gracefully take you order. Serve a meal with some wine and cheese appetizers. Offer you bread and olives with his waiter like voice and using a white towel between his hand and plate. Watching him closely you can than imagine yourself becoming that waiter without the slightest hint of your person being anything other than you.

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Excellence of character, then, is a state concerned with choice, lying in a mean relative to us, this being determined by reason and in the way in which the man of practical wisdom would determine it. Now it is a mean between two vices, that which depends on excess and that which depends on defect.

We will become perpetually more and more like God, but never in ways that violate our fundamental human nature, only in ways that supplement it.

since man is the created god, made in the image and likeness of the unoriginate God the Creator, the more divine he becomes, the more human he becomes.

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Question a friend, perhaps he did not do it; but if he did anything so that he may do it no more.A hasty quarrel kindles fire,and urgent strife sheds blood.If you blow on a spark, it will glow;if you spit on it, it will be put out; and both come out of your mouth

I"m thinking of becoming Orthodox, but Theosis or deification seems strange to me.

If you spend time in the Sun, your skin darkens and you get a tan. Your Human Nature hasn't changed, it has just adapted to being in the Sun. The more tanned you are, the safer it is to be in the Sun without burning. The same goes for the Divine Energies. We are born with a healthy "tan" which we lose due to our living in the world of sin. Theosis is the gradual tanning process to make sure that when we are fully exposed to the "Sun" (Divine Energies), we don't get a "sunburn". This tanning process continues after death since God is Infinite.

That's a great analogy!

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We will become perpetually more and more like God, but never in ways that violate our fundamental human nature, only in ways that supplement it.

since man is the created god, made in the image and likeness of the unoriginate God the Creator, the more divine he becomes, the more human he becomes.

Yep!

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I stopped posting here in August 2011 because of stark disagreement with the policies of the administration and moderating team of the forums. If you desire, feel free to PM me, message me on Facebook (link in profile), or email me: cddombrowski@gmail.com